Car navigation systems are becoming increasingly popular. The basic function of such devices is to locate the current position of a moving car, for example, and to display this position on a map to inform the user of the current position of the car. In recent years, some car navigation systems have been additionally equipped with mobile wireless terminal apparatuses that enable them to connect to the Internet. As a usage pattern thereof, this kind of navigation system may be used to connect to websites located on the Internet to obtain information about shops and restaurants located in a specific area, upcoming events, the weather, etc. This information is then displayed to the user via the display unit of the car navigation system.
When a customer purchases a product, it is common for the manufacturer or retail outlet to provide a variety of useful services to the customer. Such services are often referred to as “after-care” or “after-sales services”. The kind of car navigation system mentioned above is of course itself a product, which has been purchased by the owner of the car in which it is fitted, for example. Accordingly, if the manufacturer of this car navigation system or the retail outlet that sold it were able to offer an after-sales service for the system, this would be very convenient for the user and would increase an added value for those companies' products. At present, businesses are limited to providing after-sales services through notifications sent through the mail or by electronic mail. This places a restriction on what kind of services may be provided.
If businesses were able to set up a service providing server on the Internet, for example, and directly transmit data related to services to car navigation systems that are capable of connecting to the Internet, it would become possible to provide after-sales services to users in a more direct manner.
With current technology, a car navigation system is only able to connect to the Internet, so that it is not possible for a server to access a car navigation system as in the above example. Therefore, even if services were provided using the Internet connectability of a conventional car navigation system, the user would have to know the address (URL-Uniform Resource Locator) of the server providing the services and operate the car navigation system so as to make the car navigation system access the service providing server. Putting this in other words, when the business needs to provide a service to a customer, it is not able to access the car navigation system and immediately provide the service. This prevents businesses from providing a full range of services to customers.